The dead body of an Indonesian maid was found in the rooftop water tank of a residential building in Singapore, a few days ago. A Bangladeshi man has been arrested in connection with the case; he was seen choking her. It is believed that they were in an intimate relationship, and both were seen arguing on the morning her body was found. The case has been classified as a murder by the police, but the exact cause of death has not been determined.

All of those details seem trivial, however, in light of this significance: her corpse may have tainted the drinking water of 700 residents. One resident reported seeing white bubbles in her water while bathing her children. Doctors recommended boiling the water prior to consumption, in order to kill any bacteria or other pathogens present from the corpse, but I’m not sure that I could stomach the thought of drinking water tainted by a dead body, boiled or not.

Incidents like these are few and far between, so I don’t think that a mass manufacture of water filters designed to remove rotting corpse particles would be necessary. (We already have filters that will remove radioactive particles – perhaps they will filter dead body remnants as well…) I’m curious, though, as to what our readers would do in this situation. Boil the water and drink it? Purchase bottled water until the tank is cleaned and sterilized? Buy a Katadyn emergency water filter? Or move out of the building altogether?